Death or injury to marine species following capture in shark control programs on ocean beaches - key threatening process

Conservation status in NSW: Key Threatening Process

Description

Death or injury to marine species following capture in shark control programs on ocean beaches was listed as a KEY THREATENING PROCESS on Schedule 3 of the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 [5 December 2003].

In NSW, shark control programs currently comprise beach meshing with nets at 49 beaches between Newcastle and Wollongong (Krogh and Reid 1996), with nets set for approximately six months of the year between September and April.

The shark control programs are known to adversely affect some marine species. Two shark species listed as threatened under the Fisheries Management Act 1994 and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 are known to be affected by shark control programs. They are the Grey nurse shark and the Great white shark.

Implementation of shark control programs on ocean beaches results in the bycatch of a wide variety of non-target marine species, including the following threatened species listed under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995: Loggerhead Turtle, Dugong, Australian Fur-seal, Green Turtle, Leathery Turtle, and the Humpback Whale.

Shark Meshing Program in NSW waters is listed as a key threatening process under the Fisheries Management Act 1994.

Threat abatement - priority actions

A number of priority actions have been identified for this key threatening process. Priority actions are the specific, practical things that must be done to tackle a key threatening process. They have been grouped into 4 overarching threat abatement strategies.

See all threat abatement strategies and priority actions for this key threatening process.